Higo Blog

Going to Davis, then Mendocino, then Monterey and then Toronto (T.dot). Be back soon!

This video goes out to my older brother, and Max and Mina. Here ya go…

There it is, swimming an endless circle, the last of its group. Hard to imagine how such a large, shiny animal can suddenly mute into the endless blue backdrop, but when it happens only a keen eye can pull it out of shadows. Where giant tuna once were, a massive bait ball now dominates the seascape–perhaps more fitting now than ever as their race to extinction is hastened by nets and oil slicks.

If you have the time, go and see the Outer Bay before it goes away for a year. Though it will return, it is quite possible that it won’t be the same exhibit.

I am sometimes astounded by where my mind wanders when it is disengaged from the body.
I have a deep abrasion that is taking a long time to heal (since I’m in the water 5/7 days a week), on the back of my right hand, and so my father gave me a special oil to apply to it to speed up the healing process. I dreamed that I put it on, and right away, the surrounding skin rose as the scab sunk into the tissue, first forming a volcano-like cone, and then the surrounding tissue folded around the scab, making a pod. It didn’t heal completely, but seemed like it was healing. In the light of the morning, the scab kind of looks like it did in the dream: it’s sunken into my hand, without the pod.
Another dream had a movie-like quality. I was being introduced to some children in Thailand, and ushered onto a bus by the principal, who told me that we were going to a very bad school. Many kids had crazy colored hair, some curly, some straight, and they were being pretty rambunctious. We ended up going to a graduation ceremony, and as the principal was giving a speech, my view floated above the crowd to the very back of the field where a boy took a sheet off a balloon.
The giant balloon rose, pushing a kite that fell off at about 100 feet, and caught the wind, and the attention of the crowd. An irate principal jumped off the stage and started to chase the kid. The kid almost made it to the gate in the back to safety, but the principal caught him and threw him fifty feet in the air on top of a pole.
The kid jumped off the pole, and it looked like he was going to die, but the principal caught him, and tried to throw him up the pole again, but his aim was way off and he ended up in the pond across from the gate and splashed down on a couple of ducks who were eating a wet salad with forks off of a plate. The male duck contemplated his splashed salad before jumping in to save the kid.
And then, just as things were getting really strange, the alarm went off, and now I have to go to work.
I can’t wait to have strange dreams like this again…

For a few month, I will be teaching kids (8-13) to surface SCUBA dive in the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Great Tide Pool, through the Underwater Explorers program.
Of all of the positions I’ve held at the Aquarium, this one is by far the most fun, flexible, and provides the best opportunity to get young people interested in learning more about nature and the ocean, and ultimately to be the next generation of scientists, policy makers, educators, and stewards of our natural resources.
The program is pretty amazing in that it allows kids to bypass lengthy training courses, and to get in the Bay immediately. They get a short orientation talk, put a $2k dry suit right on top of their street clothes, don hoods, gloves, booties, masks, and SCUBA equipment, and start exploring in under 30 minutes from the start of the program.
Many kids are nervous when they first step into the water, but once they start seeing the fish, sea stars, anemonies, chitons, crabs, algae, and other organisms, most of them become fearless. It usually only takes a few minutes of coaching until the kids are able to balance in the water and get into the swing of swimming with all of the gear on.
I try to get my students to experience as much stuff as possible. I have them feel the rough-velvety mantle of a gumboot chiton on their face, eat some giant kelp (and explain that algin and keragenin are common emulsifiers that they can find in many foods and toothpastes), to feel gently prod an anemone, to catch crabs, to feed monkeyface eels, and to explore all of the things in the Great Tide Pool. By connecting these things to their everyday lives and experiences, we are helping these kids to understand and ultimately fall in love with the ocean and with nature at large.
It’s awesome to hear a kid say that they want to become a marine biologist, that they now want to go SCUBA diving as soon as they are old enough, that they can’t wait to learn more about the oceans, that they want to stay in the water forever, and that they’re no longer scared of the water or the things that lay in them.
In 30 minutes, you can accomplish a lot. It’s not just the students that benefit from the program, it’s also the parents. They are so happy to see their kids learning, having fun, conquering their fears, and doing what they love to do, or in many cases doing what they wish they could have done when they were kids (or just something they wish they could do period). I can see the instructors growing as well, as students, as educators, and as individuals. Everyone wins in the end.
We send them home with a log book in which they record the conditions of the GTP, mark off what animals they saw, and recall other things that they experienced. In addition, all participants get a cup of hot cocoa. The program is simply a win-win experience for everyone involved.

Before I’m off to work, I’d like to post this vid:

One of the last things I did on my vacation is something I haven’t done since I lived in Japan: I made a big pot of curry.
Curry is one of those dishes that evokes a plethora of sentimental memories and can awaken experiences from long ago. I can feel the humid heat of Nara under my T-shirt, and taste the hot green tea accompanying it. I can see the perfect triangular slices of watermelon, an ice cold treat that waits on plates in the center of a communal table patiently waiting to be enjoyed after the curry. This is but one of those memories.
While enjoying doing the things that I do on my time off, I not only remember, but if I am successful at relaxing, I forget.
This vacation has imparted a beneficial sort of amnesia on me, allowing me to forget work almost completely. I forgot the things that stress me out, the things that make me frustruated, and the things that make me tired. I also forgot the things that I look forward to doing, dependable co-workers, and to some extent, work friends. This is not to say these things are not important to me. I am still mindful of my work culture and environment, it’s just that everything is pushed to the way-back of my mind into storage.
I’ve been enjoying a vacation from my vacation, something that I’ve always wanted to do but have, up until this point, not been able to experience. The transition between vacation and work is often abrupt, jarring, and to some extent a traumatic experience. I’ve been able to hang out, go outdoors, stock up on groceries, cook, read, watch TV, catch up on correspondence, and generally digest my vacation. Like a well crafted culinary treat, this break left a pleasant lingering flavor that I was able to truly savor until the very end.
I have no regrets for this vacation, and thanks to the latter part of my time off I will have curry to enjoy well into my work week.

In anticipation of the BJ Penn and Vanderlei Silva fights coming up, I’d like to share this video:

It’s funny that ladyboys are so ubiquitous in Thai culture that they appear in commercials!
On another subject, this is a project for Justin and Nam:
Start practicing to make Max the best bento in the World.

I didn’t spot it right away. As I was looking at the mural on the southernmost bakery in the United States, I found a gecko hiding in the lau lau.

Only when I got really close to it, did the gecko move away from the middle of the painting, bringing its vivid colors and patterns into full view, against the beige background. Those flashy patterns really do break up the full form of the body on the top picture.
On an unrelated note, I no longer catch geckos because the last one I caught peed on my hand. I think it was trying to tell me that it didn’t like being captured, so now I only take pictures.
My brother, on the other hand, likes to eat them.